The Fan’s Wishes vs. The Team’s Plan
First of all, I wanted to share a schedule of NWSL activities over the next few weeks:
Monday, November 29, 2021 Trade Window Opens
Friday, December 3, 2021 Trade Window Closes
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 Terms of New Contracts, List of Waived Players, List of Players Receiving Exercised Options Deadline
Wednesday, December 8, 2021 End of Season Process Waiver Wire Commences
Thursday, December 9, 2021 End of Season Process Waiver Wire Concludes
Friday, December 10, 2021 Expansion Draft Protected Lists Due from All Teams (noon ET)
Friday, December 10, 2021 Protected/Unprotected Lists Distributed to All Teams (5:00 pm ET)
Thursday, December 16, 2021 Expansion Draft
Friday, December 17, 2021 Trade Window Opens
Saturday, December 18, 2021 College Draft
There has been a flurry of activity so far, and here is a pretty good summary from CBSSports.com.
As for Racing, there hasn’t been much activity. I would expect that Racing might put some players on the Waiver Wire and could possibly pick up some players off waivers, but we’ll see. The biggest item on Racing fan’s minds will almost certainly be the announcement of a head coach. Surely the team has identified a coach by now, but something it preventing them from making a public announcement. The only thing that I can think of that could be delaying the announcement at this point is that the coach is currently engaged in duties for another team. If that isn’t the case, it’s a bit worrisome that we don’t know who the coach is yet. How would you feel as a coach if you had no input into the Draft Protection list, which is due on Friday at noon? I can’t imagine that won’t announce the coach this week. If they don’t…well I don’t quite know what to think, but it isn’t good.
Moving on…the holiday season is quite often filled with wish list and resolutions to improve in the new year. I wanted to take a moment and outline the wishes that I have for Racing in 2022. Unfortunately for fans, our wishes can only really come true with a defined plan from the team. I’m fairly confident that Racing has been diligently trying to obtain roster protection from San Diego, but outside of knowing what the plan is, I have to hope that they made every effort to work out a deal. If you look at some of the other deals that San Diego has secured, you will see that the price demanded from the Wave was pretty steep. I assume that any deal that Racing tried to work out with San Diego was deemed too unfavorable towards Racing. Outside of the short term roster protection, I have 4 wishes that I hope are part of Racing Louisville’s plans for 2022.
Hire the right coach: Above all, this will likely be the best determinant of long-term success for the club. It has to be a PR win and it also has to be a win on the field as well. I will remind you that Soccer Holdings has made some really good decisions and some very questionable ones, so hiring the right person as the new head coach isn’t a guarantee. The one slightly troubling thing at this point is that the job has been open since August. We know that the club leadership will not be rushed into a decision (see letting 3 players manage Louisville City for 7 matches in 2018), but if you take your time, I fully expect better due diligence than was conducted on Christy Holly. I am hoping that they nail this hire, but I wouldn’t call myself fully confident.
Achieve a more balanced roster: Sometimes players’ listed positions don’t mean much as they can play in multiple positions, but in Racing’s case their roster is woefully short on midfielders. They really only have 3 true midfielders. Every other team in the NWSL has at least 8 nominal midfielders according to Fotmob. North Carolina had 12 listed on their roster for 2021. Savanah McCaskill is listed as a midfielder some of the time and played there quite a bit, but she isn’t a true midfielder. The good news is that help is almost certainly coming. Third-round selection from last year Parker Goins is listed as a forward on the Arkansas Razorbacks official site, but she actually won SEC Midfielder of the Year in 2021. Racing will surely plan for her in midfield. If Racing had any luck at all, they would have gotten the #1 overall pick and selected Jaelin Howell from Florida St. As it stands, there is a slight chance that San Diego takes Naomi Girma from Stanford, but Racing likely picks up a very good defender in Girma and then selects another Florida St. midfielder in Clara Robbins, who was the ACC Tournament MVP this year. Olympic gold medal winner Julia Grosso from Texas is also a possibility. The other problem is that Racing has too many attackers. Look for them to leave plenty of attacking talent unprotected in the expansion draft and possibly place a few on waivers.
Secure a local TV deal: The NWSL is a poorly run organization. This is not breaking news. They are woefully understaffed and many of the decisions they make seem baffling and unplanned. In the middle of the season last year, they decided to allow teams to have local TV deals. A well run league would have made this decision at the beginning of the year. However, Racing has now had about 6 months to be working on a deal. I believe that local TV is how you get more casual fans. Casual fans are ultimately as important, if not more important than die-hard fans. It’s hard to sustain any league on just die-hard fans and season ticket holders, especially a young one. There are definitely some people, like my parents, who I could convince to tune into a game if they could easily find it on TV. They aren’t going to seek it out, but if I can direct then toward a reliable channel they would watch. Racing already has a tailor-made broadcast team available in Jeff Greer and Casey Whitfield. If I were a local channel, I would definitely be interested in broadcasting matches next year.
Average 8,000 fans in 2022: The local TV deal would surely help with this. The team will continue to add die-hard fans, but those fans often start out as casual fans that become die-hard. This one is a little be out the the team’s direct control, but I believe it is achievable. Racing does a great job with promotion, so I think this is entirely achievable. The NWSL final surely helped with this too as almost every out-of-town fan would surely consider another trip to Louisville based on the response fans of multiple teams gave the stadium and the city.
It will surely be a busy week in Racing news, so stay tuned for additional updates.
